Eagles Reportedly Ran Fake Super Bowl Walk-Through in Case Patriots Were Spying on Them

Rick Lovato says he believes the whole practice was a fake walk-through.

February 9, 2018

philadelphia eagles super bowl practice getty — Image via Getty/Hannah Foslien
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Apparently, the Eagles hadn't forgotten about "SpyGate" as they prepared for Super Bowl LII this year. With the memory of the Patriots getting caught secretly videotaping opposing teams sitting in the back of their mind, they took extra precautions before this year's game.

Speaking with Pro Football Talk, long snapper Rick Lovato says the team intentionally didn't run plays like the "Philly Special" during their pre-Super Bowl walkthrough, which took place one day before the game.

"I believe our whole walk-through was just a complete fake walk-through," Lovato explains. "We did it at the stadium. There were certain people walking around. I believe I overheard someone say a lot of the plays we were running weren’t even in the playbook for the Super Bowl."

Lovato says the team practiced their actual game plan for two weeks leading up to the big game, so they were willing to run a fake walk-through if it meant keeping their secrets away from the Patriots.

"We already had our game plan set all week for the last two weeks," he continued. "We had two weeks to prepare for that game. A measly walk-through the day before the game, we weren’t going to show anything to anyone—especially being at the stadium."

Coming away with a surprise 41-33 victory, it seems the decision didn't hurt them. There has been no evidence that suggests the Patriots were in fact spying on the Eagles this year, and there's a chance the whole team was just being paranoid, but hey—Doug Pederson wasn't taking any chances this year.